Italgas reports a rise in core profit for Q1 after merging with 2i Rete Gas

Italgas, Europe's largest gas distributor, announced on Wednesday that it had increased its core profit by 6% in the first three months of this year as it began integrating 2i Rete.

Italgas adjusted earnings before interest taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), a measure of its profitability, came in at $392 million, driven by the growth of its regulated operations.

In a separate announcement, the group, who completed last month the 5.3 billion-euro purchase of smaller rival 2i RETE Gas, stated that it expects a positive impact to emerge from the transaction as early as this year.

Italgas has announced that it expects total revenues of 2,45 billion euros in the full year as a result from consolidating 2i RETE Gas for nine-months. This would be an increase from 1.8 billion euro in 2024.

The adjusted EBITDA, which was previously 1.35 billion euro, is expected to increase this year to 1.80-1.85 milliards euros.

As a result of the acquisition, the net debt will increase to 10.8 billion euro at the end this year. This is up from 6.8billion euro at the end December 2024.

Italgas stated that the sale of certain distribution assets required by authorities in order to clear the merger will have positive impacts starting next year. Italgas said that $1 = 0.8880 euros (Reporting and editing by Gavin Jones).

(source: Reuters)